consequently they have nothing in 'em to exclude the Jurisdiction of temporal Governors Because those temporal Governors have the very same natural and common Right over all their Subjects and in all Cases and Causes to do every Thing that shall be found necessary to the Support and Preservation of the STATE which the others can pretend to Claim for the Support and Preservation of the CHURCH Nay farther That it would be no certain Advantage to Religion for the CHURCH to be possess'd of such Authority That it would rob Kings and Princes of one great Branch of their Sovereignty and may be and often has been used to defeat even their Civil Administrations and to shake their Thrones and to Ruin their Dominions And in a Word that such an Independent Authority is Incompatible with the Supremacy of Secular Princes whose Affairs must inevitably be influenced and controul'd thereby Therefore too such inconsistent Supremacies cannot be believed to be derived both from GOD. IN Consequence of all this I have shew'd That Princes have an Authority both in the Election and also in the Deprivation of Bishops if they be disloyal and disaffected to them That without such a Power Government may be made too weak to subsist and may be in Danger of being Overturned by the Power of the Clergy That as this is what Christ's Commission never was intended for so consequently all such Deprivations made by the legal Authority of the STATE are good and Valid to all Intents and Purposes and oblige the Consciences of all the Subjects THE Conclusion of all this is That the Deprivation of the late Non-juring Bishops was in all respects Valid that the People of their several Sees are thereby discharged from all Submission and Duty and spiritual Communion and Relation to them That they have no longer any lawful Authority in our CHURCH but we as Christians are bound to adhere to the Religious Communion of those whom the King by the Laws of the Land shall Promote into their Places And in a Word that the contrary Practice in leaving the Communion of this established CHURCH and setting up Religious Assemblies under the pretended Authority of such Deprived Bishops or their Adherents Is very Wicked and sinful in the Sight of GOD and an undoubted Schism from the Communion of the Church of England I WILL only add that as these have been the constant Doctrines and Principles of the Church of England from the Beginning of the Reformation down to our Times So they had not now been disputed had it not been in favour of the Pretender and of Popery FINIS THE CONTENTS THE Occasion and Importance of this Debate page 1. The State has a supremacy in all Cases antecedently to the Church's Claim 3 Natural Religion gives no Independent Authority to the Priesthood 4 Christs Commission appropriates only the Ministration in Holy Offices 5 The General Governing Powers of the Church founded only on Common Right and not Appropriated to the Clergy by Christ's Commission 8 Therefore not to be Executed by an Authority Independent on the State This proved by Six Arguments 10 I. From the nature of the Powers in Dispute 11 Where Christ has not appropriated the Power the State is not excluded ibid. Dr. Hickes admits this in Part 12 How the Church's pretended Independency is to be understood 16 The Practices of the three first Centuries were of mere Necessity pag. 17 The Royal Preisthood Nothing to this Controversy 18 The Non-jurors lofty Style and Pretensions unsuitable to the Temper of the Gospel 20 The Church's real Authority must not be judg'd of by high Strains and Metaphors but by the Powers actually convey'd and appropriated 22 II. Such an Independency in the Church not consistent with the Subordination of Christ's Kingdom to that of the Father 23 III. Not at all Serviceable to Religion 25 IV. It robs Secular Powers of one Branch of their Sovereignty 29 That secular Princes and States have Authority in Matters of Religion proved from the Jewish Kings 31 32 V. Such a Claim dangerous to all Kingdoms as Weakening and Ruining their Authority in their Temporal Affairs 36 This Evidenced by the Practices of the Non-juring Schismaticks 37 VI. Two Independent Powers in the Government of the same Body of Men breeds inevitable Confusions and therefore cannot be of GOD pag. 41 The Necessity of granting that Christ has given the Church no Authority that interferes with Civil Powers 43 The State must have as ample a Power for its own Preservation as the Church has for Hers ib. This necessarily gives them an Authority  1. In the Election of Bishops and Clergymen 44. 2. In their Deprivation 47 No Persecution in depriving the Nonjuring Bishops 50 No real Invasion of Ecclesiastical Authority 53 Three Objections answered shewing  I. That the Relation of a Bishop to his Flock is not Divine or Unalienable 54 II. The Principles and Practices of the Cyprianick Age altogether foreign to this Controversy 62 III. No real Detriment to the Christian Church or Priesthood from the Principles of this Essay 69 The properest Method of Advancing the Character and Interest of the Clergy 70 The Conclusion 75 ERRATA Page 14. line 21. read Modification p. 15. l. 6. r. Powers p. 50. l. 25. for their r. the.
AN ESSAY ON Ecclesiastical Authority In which the Pretence of an Independent Power in the CHURCH to a Divine Right in the Election of Bishops To the Invalidity of Lay Deprivations To the Inseparable Relation of a BISHOP to his See To an Obligation of continuing Communion with the Deprived Bishops And several other Things relating to the Nonjurors Separation from our CHURCH are particularly and impartially Examined By JOHN TURNER D. D. Vicar of Greenwich and Chaplain to His Royal Highness the PRINCE LONDON Printed for JOHN WYAT at the Rose in St. Paul's Church-yard 1617. AN ESSAY ON Ecclesiastical Authority THE many irregular and dangerous Practices of the Romish Clergy under the Pretence of an exempt Jurisdiction and an Authority Independent on the Civil Power caused the Governors of our CHURCH to take that Doctrine into their serious Consideration at the Beginning of our REFORMATION and in our XXXVIIth Article they have determined and settled it thus That the Queen's Majesty for this was done in Queen Elizabeth's Time hath the chief Power in this Realm of England and all other her Dominions unto whom the chief Government of all Estates of this Realm whether they be Ecclesiastical or Civil in all Causes doth appertain And then to avoid Offence and prevent Misconstructions as the Queen had declared in her Injunctions so the said Article thus explains the forementioned Doctrine We give not hereby to our Princes the ministring either of God's Word or of the Sacraments but only that Prerogative which we see to have been given always to all godly Princes in Holy Scripture by God Himself that they should rule all Estates and Degrees of Men committed to their Charge by God whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal And this was so confirmed by the Canons in the Beginning of King James I's Reign that if the Authority of our CHURCH might be admitted to be decisive in this Matter we see plainly what that was and is But the giving so much Jurisdiction to Princes over Ecclesiastical Persons in Ecclesiastical Causes and Affairs is complained of by some among us as an Encroachment and a dangerous Compliance an enslaving Principle which controuls the Powers of the CHURCH that as they say ought to be exempt and Independent THIS Point then not being successfully enough determined by the declared Judgment of our CHURCH in Her Articles and Canons must it seems be brought under a farther Examination And it must be considered not only as a Subject of Debate and Speculation but at this Time it is become a Matter of the greatest Moment and Importance to our Peace both in CHURCH and STATE All the Enemies of the late happy REVOLUTION are gone into the Defence of that Independent Authority to say no more And all those other Notions and Opinions whereby the Non-jurors would vindicate their Separation from the Communion of our CHURCH are built upon this Foundation And it will not be easy to make them sensible that this their Separation is Unjustifiable and Wrong if this Claim be allowed good On the other Hand if it can be proved That the CHURCH has no such exempt and independent Authority as is pretended we shall strike at the very Root of their untoward Principles and Proceedings In our Inquiry into this Matter 1. THE first Thing that occurs to our Observation is That the STATE is found in the actual and full Possession of Authority over all their Subjects and in all Affairs whatsoever antecedently to the CHURCH'S Claim We are not born Priests as we are born Subjects but are made such upon a sufficient Maturity of Age and are therefore to consider what Share of Authority the Prince loses over any of his Subjects upon their Admission into Holy Orders and what is the Foundation of the pretended Change And as to this we shall soon be sensible 2. THAT there is Nothing in natural Religion to be pleaded as the Ground of such an Exemption or Independency For according to that Kings had a Right to the Priesthood also and were the undoubted supreme Judges and Determiners of all Affairs Melchisedech and Jethro we all know were such Nor does it appear that there ever was any Separation of the Ecclesiastical Authority from the Temporal before the Mosaic Dispensation which was a Type of the Evangelical and consequently no Room for any Debates or Disputes of this Nature in the first Natural State of Mankind It must therefore all be laid in Divine Revelation and Institution From whence I think it plainly follows 3. Thirdly THAT if the CHURCH has any Right to such an exempt and independent Authority as is now pleaded for it must be founded on that Divine Commission which CHRIST gave to his Apostles and their Successors and by them to his CHURCH to the End of the World The Way then to know what there is to be said for such a Claim is to consider well the Contents of that Commission which must be looked on as the great Charter of the Gospel upon which all Her appropriated Rights and Privileges Her Authority and Powers Her Immunities and Franchises are built The Substance then of CHRIST'S Commission to his Apostles was That they should make Proselytes of all Nations Matth. xxviii 19 20. Joh. xx 21 c. by Preaching God's Word that they should Baptize them and by that Sacrament admit them into Christ's Church that they should afterwards instruct and train them up in the Pure Christian Worship and Holiness and in that Worship commemorate CHRIST'S Death in the Eucharist according to his Institution bind Offenders loose Penitents and by Ordaining Ministers make an effectual Provision for the perpetual Continuance of this Ministry which CHRIST has thus committed to 'em to the End of the World according to his Appointment So that Preaching and Performing Divine Service in the Worship of GOD Administring the Sacraments inflicting Censures and passing Sentence upon enormous Sinners Absolving the Penitent from such Sentences and Ordaining Ministers These and whatever other Particulars of Ministration in the Divine Offices of Religion are by the special Commission of CHRIST in any Part of it appropriated to the Spiritual Governors of the CHURCH become thereby the Peculiar sacred Powers of the Christian Priesthood Concerning all which it is allow'd and granted 1. That the CHURCH does not derive Her Authority to the Execution of them from any Temporal Powers or Potentates but from JESUS CHRIST alone by the forementioned Divine Commission 2. That as they were not originally derived from so neither can they be taken away or made to cease by any secular Authorities whatsoever 3. That neither can any secular Powers of themselves execute these Divine and Holy Offices The very End and Reason of taking these Holy Offices out of the Hands of the secular Powers who before had executed them and of vesting them in a distinct Set or Order of Men still requires that they should continue so separated And consequently all the Powers specify'd in
CHRIST'S Commission are the limitted and appropriated Powers which belong to the Spiritual Governours of the CHURCH alone and which no Temporal Potentates can take upon them to execute without breaking in upon CHRIST'S Institution and subverting the very Ends and Reasons of their original Separation And therefore if no more had been intended by the Independent Authority of CHRIST'S Church in the Execution of their Priestly Office than this That they who derived not this Authority from the State could not have it taken away by them and that the secular Powers are by CHRIST'S Commission excluded from the Performance of all the Divine Offices specify'd in it The Church of England has declared Her Judgment in Favour of such a Claim and we should have entred into no Disputes against it BUT then he who himself has no Authority to baptize may yet be a competent Judge of the Care and Fidelity of those who do And he who has no Power to administer the Sacrament of the Lord's-Supper or to ordain Ministers may yet be capable of taking Cognizance of the Neglects and of the Miscarriages committed in those Performances So that it is one Thing to minister in the Holy Offices and Service of the Church and another to have Rule and Government and a judicial Cognizance of the Care Fidelity and good or evil Conduct of those who do This leads me to consider 2. THAT besides the Ministration in Holy Offices the Power of the Keys and Ordination there are other Powers and Authorities claimed by the Church Such are all the General Powers of Government of Assembling in Synods of Consulting one another on important Occasions of making Laws or Canons of appointing to particular Churches or Districts their proper Pastors of determining religious Debates and Disputes of prescribing Rules of Order and Discipline c. All which as not being expressly mentioned in or appropriated by CHRIST'S Commission as the other divine Offices of Religion are can belong to the Church only of Common-Right as it is a Society and as such Acts of Government are the constant and common Rights of every Established Community A SOCIETY cannot subsist without Government as therefore the Christian Church is by CHRIST'S Commission constituted a spiritual Society there is no Doubt but that it thereby obtains a certain Right to the Exercise of all such Authority in Government as other Established Communities are usually possess'd of THE Question then is not whether the Church has a Right to the Exercise of such Authority for it is undeniably evident that she has But what is the Foundation of that Authority and how far it will hold good to the Exclusion of the secular Powers Now unless it could be made appear that these Powers of Government are by CHRIST'S Commission specify'd and appropriated to the Priesthood as the divine Offices of its Holy Ministration are There can be no other Reason or Ground of this Claim than that of common Right and Necessity to the Support of this spiritual Community and to the Attainment of the great End for which it was ordained WE see therefore that in this Controversy a great regard is to be had to the Distinction here made between the divine Offices of the Christian Priesthood and the more General Powers of Government The former are allow'd to be appropriated to the Orders of the Bishops and Clergy only The latter are those Powers and Authorities which our present Controversies and Dissentions are about And if I am right in Stating the CHURCH'S Claim and Title thereto I shall certainly be Right in the Determination of this dispute So far as they are Necessary to the due Execution of CHRIST'S Commission the CHURCH has undoubted Right thereto And if Dr. Hickes and his Friends had gone no farther in claiming a Right to the Exercise of Ecclesiastical Authority Independently on the secular than as that shall be found necessary to the Propagation and Establishment of Christianity I am apt to think that all Christians would have come into it I for my Part can make no Scruple to affirm that by Virtue of Christs Commission to his Apostles and their Successors to Preach and Propagate the Gospel and to gather Him a Church thereby They have an undoubted Right and Authority to do every Thing in the Exercise of their Spiritual Offices which shall be found necessary to the Support of the Christian Faith and CHURCH But if Men will not content themselves with this without going farther if they will claim an Universal Inherent Authority of doing every Thing in Matters of Religion if they please by themselves and to be the sole Proper and Rightful Judges of all Ecclesiastical Causes and Matters with a divine Right to exclude the Secular Authority at their Pleasure and to make Null and Invalid every Thing that is done by the Temporal Powers in these Affairs without the Clergy's Approbation and Consent This I think a most Unreasonable and Unrighteous Demand and I have these six Things to plead against it I. SUCH a Claim seems contrary to the very Nature of the Powers that we are now reasoning about They are not the peculiar appropriated Offices of the Priesthood such as Ministring in the Divine Service administring Sacraments c. which we have already owned Kings and Princes to be excluded from But they are the CHURCH'S common Powers of Government which belong to Her only of common Right and to the General Exercise of which other Societies are entitled as well as the CHURCH Now these general Powers of Government are no otherwise to be exercis'd exclusive of and Independently on the Secular Authority than the Necessity of Affairs requires them so to be And that Authority which has no other Reason or Foundation then its Usefulness or Necessity as a Means to the attaining to such an End certainly loses a great deal of its Force and Obligation in all those Instances in which it ceases to be useful or necessary and where the End may be as effectually obtained without it And this is the true Reason of all that Difference which is observable in History in the Practice of the Bishops and Governours of the Christian Church in the Exercise of these very Powers under Heathen and under Christian Emperors and Governours When their Heathen Governours cast them off and left them to themselves they then manag'd all Things by themselves the Necessity of their Affairs requiring that they should so do But when the Christian Emperors took the Affairs of Christians into their Cognizance and made Laws and passed Sentences and executed Judgment therein The Christian Bishops and Clergy unanimously gave Way and very readily submitted thereto IT may possibly have some weight with some of my Readers to observe that even Dr. Hickes in the Collection of Papers lately Published by his Friends and which were Written and Published on purpose to carry up the Powers of the Priesthood and an Independent Authority as high as possibly he could Yet comes in
CHRIST to oppose and lord it over the Ministers of GOD the FATHER is to invert the sacred Order of Things and to forget the Subordination of the SON to the FATHER GOD for the Honour of the ever blessed Redeemer was pleased to grant Him a Kingdom within his own Dominions with Rule and Power over all Mankind in order to our Salvation and to the effectual Establishment of it to appoint Him Powers and Ministers of his own and to take away from temporal Governours the Ministration of those divine and sacred Offices which they before performed But as it does not appear by CHRIST'S Commission that He has appropriated all the Powers of Government in his CHURCH to the Bishops and Clergy only together with the Authority of those sacred Ministrations it is certainly very wrong in them to assume a Power of excluding universally the Authority of the FATHER'S Ministry The Dispensation of the SON however Excellent and Glorious as blessed be GOD it is ought yet certainly to be administred in Subordination to that of the FATHER And to pretend the contrary must needs be very absutd and displeasing to Them both AND yet this Absurdity as great as it is is carry'd still farther and the Abettors of it not content with the Claim of an independent Power only plead for a superior Authority in the Church because that is spiritual and extends to the Souls of Men. This is not only in Effect to deny the Civil Magistrates Concern in Matters of Religion and where the Souls of Men are affected But moreover it is to set up the SON above the FATHER by making the Ministry of the SON superior to that of the FATHER This is what I cannot but think unreasonable and contrary to the Design and Intention of Them both It is under the Favour and Protection of the SON to reject the Authority and Supremacy of the FATHER than which scarce any thing can be more offensive to him To this let me add III. THAT the true Kingdom of GOD and the Religion of JESUS CHRIST established therein do not appear to be at all more strong and safe and secure from Corruptions by such an Independent Authority than they would be otherwise REMEMBER we are here disputing only about an independent Power in the Government of the Church and the Management of its Affairs for the Success of Religion It would therefore methinks be much in Favour of such a Pretension if it could be made appear by long Experience throughout all Ages that the Purity of this Holy Religion had always been better secured that Way than the other And that it had as constantly suffered when ever it was brought under the Direction and Jurisdiction of the STATE But alas this was true only in the first Ages of Christianity when the Governors of the Church had more extraordinary and miraculous Assistances from the Holy Ghost Then indeed the Purity of Religion was effectually preserved and the Word of GOD mightily grew and prevailed But when the essential Principles and Laws of Christianity were committed to Writing and the Clergy were to gain spiritual Knowledge by Reading them when the extraordinary Powers of the Holy Ghost began to be removed and Men were asisted as they are now only by the ordinary Influences thereof and in Consequence of this the spiritual Governors of the Church were subject to the same Passions and Infirmities and Temptations as other Men now a-days are Religion soon felt the Fruits of this and its genuine Purity soon began to decay and declined apace Till by Degrees it grew so corrupt that to use St. Paul's Words on a like Occasion The whole Creation groaned and travailed Rom. viii 21 22. in Pain together waiting to be delivered from this Bondage of Corruption into the glorious Liberty of the Children of God So that whatever Advantages Christianity received by the pure Faith and constant Patience by the great Integrity and Piety of the Primitive Christians in the three first Centuries it suffered at least as much in after-Ages by the evil Conduct of those who were in Possession of those Spiritual Powers To give one notorious Instance of this I would desire these learned Gentlemen to read the History and Acts of the second Council of Nice and there to consider by whose Over-bearing Authority the Idolatry of Image-worship was first brought into the Church of CHRIST Such Instances shew too plainly that the true Advancement of CHRIST'S Spiritual Kingdom depends more upon the Fidelity and Piety of its Ministers than upon the regal independent Authority IF therefore the Non-jurors in Vindication of their Schism had not contracted an Habit of Writing Paradoxes One would wonder mightily to hear them impute the Atheism Deism Heresy Schisms Infidelity Profaneness Dr. Hick Collect. pag. 29. and Immorality that are found in this Land to the taking away of this supreme independent Power of the Church Let any Man look Abroad into Italy Spain or Portugal there he will find the Government of the Church in the Hands of those very Men whose Right to it Dr. Hickes contends for and that too with greater Immunities and Exemptions than he has pleaded for And yet in all these Kingdoms he will find as much Infidelity and Irreligion as scandalous Vice and Immorality and Profaneness as in any Part of Christendom Only perhaps with a little more Reserve for Fear of an Inquisition IN short That our Discipline is too much lost we all complain as well as the Non-jurors But that the Matter would certainly be mended by putting it wholly into the Hands of the Clergy with an independent and unrestrained Authority is what cannot be allowed Because where the Church has that Power Religion is more infamously corrupted than in any other Places of the Christian World LET us but reflect what Opposition the Reformation of it met with here at Home from those very Men whose independent Power is now pleaded for And with how much Difficulty it was rescued out of their Hands that it might be restored to its original Purity The Church of England with all its great Excellencies and valuable Constitutions was thus Reformed the Spiritual Powers being ruled and governed by the Secular in the Exercise of their Ecclesiastical Authority And has the CHURCH yet a Divine Right to take the Judicial Cognizance of Religion wholly out of the Hands of those Men by whom it has been preserved from Destruction What Reason or Necessity can there be for that If by these Means the Government of the CHURCH should once again fall into ill Hands as it has done in former Times it may in the unhappy Event be found setting up for Authority to corrupt Religion instead of preserving it And that too without leaving the Secular Potentates a sufficient Authority to retrieve and reform it a second time And this also is a just Exception to the Reasonableness and Righteousness of such a Claim IV. SUCH an Exempt Independent Authority in the